Fall Gardening

It is time to start planting your fall vegetables or cool - season vegetables. Some of the vegetables that like the cool weather are broccoli, cauliflower, peas, spinach, onions, garlic, potatoes, lettuce, mustard & cabbage. If the weather in your area is still quite warm/hot, you may want to start sowing your seeds indoors & transplant them when the weather gets cooler. If you have nice cool weather, you can directly plant them in the soil. Take care to water them more than once a day if the weather starts to warm up.

I started a little patch & planted some red onions & carrot seeds in the soil today. Planning to plant garlic, spinach, cauliflower & some peas in the next few days.

Here's a "time window" to plant your fall vegetables in zone 8

Beans - 8/1 - 9/1 (lima beans 7/15 - 8/15)	Muskmelon (Cantaloupe) - 7/15 - 8/1
Beets - 9/1 - 10/15	Mustard - 9/15 - 10/15
Broccoli plants - 8/1 - 9/15	Parsley - 8/15 - 10/1
Brussels sprouts - 8/1 - 10/1	Peas, English - 8/15 - 9/15
Cabbage plants - 8/15 - 9/15	Peas, Southern - 7/1 - 8/1
Carrots - 8/15 - 10/15	Pepper plants - 7/1 - 8/1
Cauliflower plants - 8/15 - 9/15	Potatoes, Irish - 8/15 - 9/15
Chard, Swiss - 8/1 - 10/15	Pumpkin - 7/1 - 8/1
Collard/Kale - 8/15 - 10/1	Radish - 9/15 - 10/15
Corn, Sweet - 8/1 - 8/15	Spinach - 9/1 - 10/15
Cucumber - 8/1 - 9/1	Squash, Summer - 7/15 - 8/15
Eggplant plants - 7/15 - 8/1	Squash, Winter - 7/1 - 7/15
Garlic - 9/1 - 10/15	Tomato plants - 7/15 - 8/1
Kohlrabi - 8/15 - 9/15	Turnips - 10/1 - 11/1
Lettuce (leaf) - 9/15 - 10/15	Watermelon - 7/1 - 8/1

Timing is very important for a successful fall garden. Crops sensitive to the cold need to planted  ahead of time so that it matures before the weather turns cold. Also, heat sensitive plants have to be planted accordingly to avoid any heat but making sure the plant has enough time to grow before the first frost.